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Globalisation from below: conceptualising the role of theAfrican diasporas in africa's developmentGiles Mohan a; A. B. Zack-Williams ba Development Policy & Practice Discipline, Open University, Milton Keynes, UKb Professor in the Department of Education and Social Studies, University of CentralLancashire, Preston, UK

Online Publication Date: 01 June 2002

To cite this Article: Mohan, Giles and Zack-Williams, A. B. (2002) 'Globalisationfrom below: conceptualising the role of the African diasporas in africa'sdevelopment', Review of African Political Economy, 29:92, 211 — 236

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Review of African Political Economy No.92:211-236© ROAPE Publications Ltd., 2002ISSN 0305-6244

Globalisation From Below:Conceptualising the Role of the AfricanDiasporas in Africa's Development

Giles Mohan &AB Zack-Williams

In the past both African Studies and Development Studies have ignoredquestions of the African Diaspora. This point was made by Zack-Williamsback in 1995 but since then there has not been much work attempting torectify this matter. In this article we put forward a framework for examiningthe role of diaspora in development. This centres on recognising that theformation of the African Diaspora has been intimately linked to the evolutionof a globalised and racialised capitalism. While the linkages betweencapitalism, imperialism and displacement are dynamic we should avoid asimplistic determinism that sees the movements of African people as someinevitable response to the mechanisms of broader structures. Thecomplexity of displacement is such that human agency plays an essentialrole and avoids the unhelpful conclusion of seeing Africans as victims. Itis this interplay of structural forces and human agency that gives diasporastheir shifting, convoluted and overlapping geometry. Having establishedthat we examine the implications of a diasporic perspective forunderstanding the development potential of both Africans in diaspora andthose who remain on the continent. We argue that both politically andeconomically the diaspora has an important part to play in contemporarysocial processes operating at an increasingly global scale. The key issueswe address are embedded social networks in the diaspora, remittances andreturn, development organisations, religious networks, cultural dynamics,and political institutions. We conclude by suggesting where diasporicconcerns will take us in the next few years.

...he quickly decided that his contributions to the nation's development, ironically enough,might best be made from elsewhere (Wamba, 1999:8).

... what is new is that making use of kin overseas is becoming an essential strategy forsurvival and improving life for some populations (MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga,2000:134).

IntroductionThe formation of the African Diaspora has been intimately linked to the evolution of aglobalised and racialised capitalism. Slavery, colonial labour policies, post-colonial

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212 Review of African Political Economy

conflict and economic hardship have all propelled Africans into the diaspora thatgrows ever more diffuse. Indeed one estimate from 1990 was that there were 300million 'Africans' worldwide compared with 540 million residents in Africa (van derVeer, 1995). This compares with 11 million Jews worldwide and only 3.5 million inIsrael. However, while the linkages between capitalism, imperialism and displace-ment are dynamic we should avoid a simplistic determinism that sees the movementsof African people as some inevitable response to the mechanisms of broaderstructures. The complexity of displacement is such that human agency plays anessential role and avoids the unhelpful conclusion of seeing Africans as victims(Papastergiadis, 2000). It is this interplay of structural forces and human agency thatgives diasporas their shifting, convoluted and overlapping geometry.

In this article we seek to sketch the contours of an analysis of the African Diaspora anddevelopment. While there has been much work on migration and labour markets(Harris and Todaro, 1970; Durand, Parado, and Massey, 1996) there is very little onthe complex linkages between diaspora and development. Much of the work on thediaspora has been of a cultural nature, examining such things as the 'survival' ofAfrican cultural practices in the New World or the representation of 'home' in theprocesses of diasporic identity formation. Such issues are undoubtedly important andwe will be touching upon them in what follows. However, very few studies examinethe role that diasporic networks play in the well being of both the Diaspora itself andAfricans on the continent. Such a lacuna is worrying given, as the opening quotessuggest, that migration and displacement have become central elements in recentsurvival strategies.

We begin by examining the intellectual trajectories that have led to the eclipsing ofdiasporic concerns in both development studies and African studies. This relates tothe ways in which 'Africa' is imagined and apprehended in western intellectualtraditions, the us/them dichotomy that followed colonial withdrawal and the culturalbias of academic approaches to race and identity in western societies. The next sectionlooks at concepts of diaspora and particularly the way in which they are defined anddelimited. This is highly problematic given that some sense of common identitydefines a diaspora yet much of what some groups deem to be diasporic actually lackssuch commonality. Hence, we look at the elision between diasporas and networks inwhich the latter may lack a shared identity, but be useful for developmental purposes.The major section examines the implications of a diasporic perspective forunderstanding the development potential of both Africans in diaspora and thoseremaining on the continent. We argue that both politically and economically thediaspora has an important part to play in contemporary social processes operating atan increasingly global scale. The key issues we address are embedded social networksin the diaspora, remittances and return, development organisations, religiousnetworks, cultural dynamics, and political institutions. We conclude by suggestingwhere diasporic concerns will take us in the next few years.

Intellectual SchismsThis section examines the reasons why the concerns of diasporic Africans have rarelyfigured highly in either development studies or African studies. As such it picks up onsome of the issues raised elsewhere by the present authors (Zack-Williams, 1995;Mohan, 2002). The basic question we address is why has the diaspora not featured indiscussions of Africa or of African developmenP. This brief and schematic archaeology ofknowledge traces the evolution of knowledge about Africa and development in whichthere are two, mutually reinforcing schisms. First, between African Studies and

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Conceptualising the Role of the African Diasporas in Africa s Development 213

studies of the African Diaspora and, second, between Development Studies andstudies of the African Diaspora (see West and Martin, 1999 for an excellent analysis ofsome of these issues). From there we examine debates about globalisation and post-colonialism which are making more culturally-focused and less state-centredanalyses possible and which are, in part, opening the intellectual space for criticalstudies of the diaspora. However, given that all knowledge generation is political wemust also ask the question of why is diaspora becoming a key issue now and whatideological agenda might this visibility serve?

Development Studies, African Studies & the Diaspora... members of the white Africanist establishment have long sought to separate sub-SaharanAfrica, the object of their study and research agenda, from the African Diaspora and issuesof race (West and Martin, 1999:8).

During the slave trade Africans entered the diaspora forcibly (Segal, 1998) despite thepresence of a few 'free' Africans in Europe (Fryer, 1984). As we discuss in more detailbelow we must remember that slavery also occurred in East Africa and was in anumber of ways quite different from that which occurred out of West Africa and, as aresult, affected subsequent developments (Segal, 1998). In the colonial period,colonial administration was about control and basic welfare (Phillips, 1976; Cooke,2001). The 'natives' were seen as needing development and the spatial dynamics wassuch that a colonial diaspora was spread across the globe to administer the colonies insitu. It was then that African Studies emerged as a generalised area study in whichacademic pursuits aimed to study the diversity of cultures in order to govern themmore effectively (Fyfe, 1999). The handmaidens in this endeavour were culturalanthropology, history and geography with their empirical focus of documenting andmapping people and resources (Godlewska and Smith, 1994). Similarly, colonialadministration departments in the UK sought to train the generalist administrator forcoping with conditions 'on the ground'. The only serious challenge to this intellectualand political state of affairs came from Diasporic and 'Pan-African' activists likeMarcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois. These intellectuals sought to bring together ananti-racist agenda with a programme for the salvation of Africa under the yolk ofcolonialism. While their impact was significant, they were perhaps more successful inchampioning anti-racism and black pride in North America than they were insignificantly challenging the colonial project (Magubane, 1987).

Around the Second World War Africans began travelling voluntarily to themetropoles, primarily for education. These flows were added to at the end of thecolonial era by the labour migrations from the Caribbean that added even greatercomplexity to what Gilroy (1993b) popularised as the 'Black Atlantic'. This periodcoincided with the 'invention' of development studies as an extension of colonialadministration (Escobar, 1995; Cooke, 2001). As the colonies 'came home', sociology(and later cultural studies) handled questions of the diaspora (Hall, 1990; Gilroy,1987) while development studies handled issues of Africa and the developing world'over there'. This created an intellectual and spatial schism between studies of Africandevelopment and the African Diaspora. Overlying this is the political economy ofDevelopment Studies and the cultural emphasis of studies of diaspora, which wereturn to below.

Similarly, African Studies has retained many of its generalist colonial (and neo-imperial) features and resolutely sees Africa as a self-contained continent. However,there has been a steady stream of attempts to rectify this; none of which we would

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argue have been as useful as critical political economy perspectives. First, recentattempts to re-theorise and mainstream African history, namely various forms ofAfrocentrism, are extremely problematic in terms of their validity and the politicalprogrammes attached to this form of ethno-nationalism (Howe, 1998; Gilroy, 1993a).They fall back on crude essentialisms that fail to capture the richness of Africancultures as well as the multifarious experiences of the African Diaspora. Second, thepost-structural critique of African Studies, inspired by Said's Orientalist thesis, seesall forms of 'Western' knowledge as complicit in an imperialist mission and byrevealing this fact they seek to 'decolonise' intellectual practice. While this is acomplex and salutary debate it is problematic in that these scholars are good at'deconstructing' the problem, but are less able to suggest ways in which concernedintellectuals can actually engage productively in attacking underdevelopment. Athird response to some 'messy' political interventions has been the argument thatAfricans should be responsible for their own development. While this discourse isoften undermined by the realities of aid conditionality and imperialism, it suggeststhat African Studies is less relevant to contemporary developmental problems. Forexample, Tony Blair's recent West African foray stressed the need for Africansolutions in partnership with donors. However, beyond these bland pronouncementsof partnership and scare-mongering about the threat of terrorism from third worldcountries (reminiscent of Robert Kaplan's infamous diatribe on the coming anarchy)the British government failed to consult the leading West African Studies institution{Guardian, February 2002).

These three phenomena largely relate to the intellectual and political agendasoperating in the USA and Europe, but what of African Studies in Africa? At one levelthe general economic malaise and the suspicion of many governments towardsintellectuals has seen the undermining of support for study in general. Many scholarshave either been victimised or are forced into taking relatively lucrative consultancycontracts, which compromises their ability to voice critical judgements about the stateof Africa's development. Increasingly the abstract post-structural debates that tookplace in Europe and America that challenge 'truth' are seen as indulgent andirrelevant for scholars facing the daily grind of survival. As such the input of African-based scholars into 'global' debates has been curtailed. However, with the economicand political crises of the past 20 years which saw large numbers of academics re-locating to departments outside their home country the lived experience of diasporamay begin to effect more critical transnational theorising.

Globalisation, Transnationalism & Post-colonialismWe believe that we can no longer afford to treat diaspora as either a primarily culturalphenomena or one that is not relevant to (a journal of) African development. We willlook at both the intellectual conditions that make this possible and the realitiesoccurring around the globe. Intellectually we have globalisation studies and post-colonialism. Both challenge state-centred views of the world and make us re-thinkboundaries, communities and flows (Paolini, 1997). On the one, hand globalisationstudies have encouraged a broader 'world view' which looks to interconnections with'others', although these tend to be limited to those others who present either a threatto capitalist hegemony or constitute new sources for accumulation. Paradoxically, onthe other hand, the expanded remit of globalisation studies has for some seen theerosion of the relevance and need for area studies given that everywhere is connectedto everywhere else, which renders (studies of) regional specificity meaningless. Sucha problem afflicts all area studies programmes although the thesis that capitalism isexpansionary and uneven comes as no surprise to intellectuals who have been

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Conceptualising the Role of the African Diasporas in Africa's Development 215

working within a critical political economy framework for three decades or more(Amin, 1976; Wallerstein, 1979).

To date much post-colonial theory has focused on the cultural-textual and looked atthe ways in which Western canons appropriate, (mis)represent or silence the thirdworld subject (Goss, 1996). Post-colonial theory is not without its problems althoughwe have not got space to elaborate on this (for useful critiques see Dirlik, 1994;Loomba, 1998; Ahmad, 1992). In general, there has been a tendency to underplay therole of capitalism in shaping global power relations, to imbue the Third World subjectwith too much agency, and to ignore the state either as an agent of imperialism or as apotential defender of rights. Increasingly post-colonial studies is addressing thecombined questions of human agency and political economy with things like theGramscian-inspired subaltern studies group in India (Guha, 1982; Dirlik (1997) andOng's (1993) work on transnational business networks, and Mbembe's (1991) work onthe state in Africa. These studies place greater emphasis upon the structuralconstraints facing third world people without reducing them to helpless victims.

On the other hand, events of the post-colonial period are making these theoreticalinterventions more relevant (Papastergiadis, 2000). Large-scale migration, often semi-legally or illegally, means that the 'neo-diaspora', as opposed to the slave and colonialdiasporas, has increased dramatically. Such movement is largely a rational responseto economic hardship and political turmoil or is forced in the case of refugees fleeingfrom persecution and conflict. Second, information and transport technologies makeinteractions much easier and cheaper which can enhance a diaspora's sense ofcommunity. Diasporas, possibly more than any other grouping, are very much an'imagined community' in Anderson's (1991) terms, but unlike nation-states they lackterritorial integrity and political sovereignty. Finally, with persistent (and growing)racial polarisation in USA and Western Europe, the symbolic significance of 'Africa'for the diaspora has increased as witnessed by the popularity of Farrakhan's Nation ofIslam and Afrocentric discourses. Indeed, this last point raises an interesting, andpersistent, question of whether diasporic concern over Africa is largely a response tothe needs of the diaspora, particularly the North American branch, as opposed topressing needs of the continent itself? The answer is not easy and depends upon thegroup in focus with, for example, recent African immigrants having a differentrelationship to the diaspora and Africa than African-Americans whose ancestors leftAfrica two hundred years earlier.

Conceptualising the African DiasporaThis last point alerts us to the fact that we must be wary about generalising about the'diasporic condition' yet at the same time we must be reasonably precise about howwe use it otherwise it can mean all things to all people. In this section we look atdebates about defining diasporas in general and those specific to the AfricanDiaspora.

Defining the (African) DiasporaAt the level of general theories of the diaspora the most commonly cited work is thatof Safran (1991), Clifford (1994) and Cohen (1997). The term itself is contested anddynamic and its usage varies between groups and over time depending upon theideological needs of these groups. One of the key problems is that the 'paradigmatic'diasporic experience, namely that of the Jewish exile from Babylon, has come todominate the discussion (Akyeampong, 2000). Additionally, for the sake of our

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discussion, and with certain parallels, the African Diaspora has been seen largely interms of the horrific experiences of Atlantic slavery. These 'victim' diasporas (Cohen,1997) were clearly terrible events and their effects are still felt today. However, not alldiasporic experiences are as traumatic so we need to be simultaneously more flexibleand precise in our theorisation.

The roots of the word diaspora lies in Ancient Greek where it is comprised of twoelements - speiro (to sow) and the preposition dia (over) (Cohen, 1997). For the Greeks,diaspora signified productive colonisation, a positive movement for all concerned. Inthe subsequent millennia diaspora gained more negative connotations following theenslavement and exile of the Jews from Babylon. Diaspora became linked tooppression, forced displacement and the ceaseless search for an authentic homeland.From here a number of other 'victim' diasporas followed - the most notable being theWest Africans through slavery, Palestinians through Zionist expansionism andArmenians through persecution by the Ottomans. All these experiences involveforcible displacement by another group. From these beginnings the term hasbroadened to include more voluntary and proactive movements of people and theconnections between them. This broadened agenda calls

for re-imagining the 'areas' of area studies and developing units of analysis that enable us tounderstand the dynamics of transnational cultural and economic processes, as well as tochallenge the conceptual limits imposed by national and ethnic/racial boundaries (Lavieand Swedenburg, 1996:14).

This has seen cultural and racial difference as relational and, in some cases, positive asopposed to the victim discourse, which sees such differences inevitably leading totension and conflict. Robin Cohen (1997) has developed a classification of diasporas(see Figure 1) which moves beyond the rather narrow use of diaspora as being anessentially victim experience. However, as with any classificatory typology, discretecategories can never really capture the complex realities of lived experience.

Cohen's classification avoids the limitations of narrower definitions of diaspora inthree basic ways. First, Cohen has added that not all diasporas are involuntary whichaffects their composition, outlook and developmental potential. He observes that:

Being dragged off... being expelled, or being coerced to leave by force of arms appearqualitatively different phenomena from the general pressures of overpopulation, landhunger, poverty or an unsympathetic political regime (Cohen, 1997:27).

So, people move and diasporas develop for more positive reasons than forcedexpulsion. Having said that, we must analyse all experiences contextually andempirically so that we do not abstract these concepts 'away from the situated practicesof everyday life' (Mitchell, 1997:535). For some, diaspora may be liberating while forothers their displacement is an ever-present trauma.

Second, Cohen includes characteristics that see both the imagining of home and itsphysical well-being and rejuvenation as crucial to defining diasporas. This borrowsfrom William Safran's (1991) six-point 'ideal type' of diaspora. Safran argues that adiaspora exists once a peoples

have been dispersed from a specific original 'centre' to two or more 'peripheral', or foreign,regions... [and]... they regard their ancestral homeland as their true, ideal home and as theplace to which they or their descendants would (or should) eventually return (Safran's,1991:83-4).

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James Clifford (1994) argued that Safran builds his model too exclusively upon theJewish experience, which not only mis-represents the Jewish Diaspora, but alsocannot be readily applied, to other diasporas. For example, the Jewish Diaspora is lesshomogenous than Safran believes with different sub-groups travelling to differentdestinations and through interacting with local factors they evolved differentrelationships with the 'homeland'. As Cohen (1997) observes, it is only certain factionsof this heterogeneous Jewish Diaspora that call for a restoration of an exclusivehomeland, with many others reasonably content to put expulsion behind them andlive in permanent 'exile' (Elazar, no date). Hence, those with strong affinities with ahomeland are more likely to support, either financially or politically, developmentefforts that seek to re-create or strengthen it.

Third, in terms of the geographies of diaspora, Cohen adds a degree of complexity notfound in Safran's typology and helps us see how diffuse connections around the globecan be a developmental benefit for some diasporic communities. Safran stresses abinary pattern where all connections ultimately (aspire to) return 'home'. For Clifford,and for our analysis of diasporic development, 'lateral connections may be asimportant as those formed around a teleology of origin /return' (1994:306). Thismeans that rather that viewing diasporas as comprising two points - home and exile -where exiles simply want to return home, we need to think about multiple sites ofexile and, crucially, the connections between them. As diasporas evolve over time, themembers (or their subsequent generations) may move again yet retain links to theirhome, their original site of exile and those places where other diasporic membershave also relocated to. This greatly complicates the spatiality of diasporas andproduces, instead, a geography of diaspora, which is built around multiple localitiesconnected by ever-changing networked relationships (MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga, 2000)

Figure 1: Cohen's Framework for Classifying Diaspora

1) dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically, to two or more foreign regions;2) alternatively, the expansion from a homeland in search of work, in pursuit of trade or to further

colonial ambitions;3) a collective memory and myth about the homeland, including its location, history and

achievements;4) an idealization of the putative ancestral home and a collective commitment to its maintenance,

restoration, safety, prosperity, even to its creation;5) the development of a return movement that gains collective approbation;6) a strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time and based on a sense of

distinctiveness, a common history and the belief in a common fate;7) a troubled relationship with host societies, suggesting a lack of acceptance at the least of the

possibility that another calamity might befall the group;8) a sense of empathy and solidarity with co-ethnic members in other countries of settlement; and9) the possibility of a distinctive creative, enriching life in host countries with a tolerance for

pluralism.

Source. Cohen, 1997:26

The Role of IdentityOne of the key questions in understanding diasporas is that of identity. As Byfield(2000:2) argues 'the creation of diaspora is in large measure contingent on a diasporicidentity that links the constituent parts of the diaspora to a homeland'. However, thedebate about identity is fierce and ongoing with a broad split between those who see arelatively coherent and largely racialised identity and those 'anti-essentialists' who

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see identities as so multiple, provisional and dynamic that it is impossible to talkabout them as fixed or coherent. This latter group (Gilroy, 1993a; Hall, 1990) prefer,instead, the metaphor of hybridity to capture the ever-changing amalgams of culturalcharacteristics.

Early studies of diaspora were largely anthropological and focused on the 'survival'of cultural traits from Africa in the New World (Patterson and Kelley, 2000). To a largeextent this issue of authenticity and displacement set the terms for much of whatfollowed. Some argued that there was an annihilation of cultural characteristicsduring the middle passage and saw no need to refer back to Africa as a referencepoint. Others saw African culture surviving in tact and took this as evidence of adesire to return. Such absolutes are rarely, if ever, seen in the real world. As Pattersonand Kelley (2000:19) observe 'we must always keep in mind that diasporic identitiesare socially and historically constituted, reconstituted, and reproduced' and that theseprocesses are linked by a racialised and gendered hierarchy. The contexts in whichthis occurs is structured along cultural, legal, economic, social and imperial lines, butone thing, which is immutable, is that 'the arrangements that this hierarchy assumesmay vary from place to place but it remains a gendered racial hierarchy' (Pattersonand Kelley, 2000:20).

A similar point is made by Eceheruo (1999) in response to the work of Paul Gilroy. Aswe alluded to above, Gilroy is firmly in the anti-essentialist camp and rejects ethnicityand kinship as a basis of identity yet still refers to a 'black' Atlantic, which requiressome common inheritance. As a result Gilroy evokes a 'travelling culture' in theAfrican Diaspora, which is seen as liberating, but in doing so he is in danger ofdenying the trauma of slavery and other displacements. According to Eceheruo,Gilroy underplays the very essence of diaspora - the notion of exile. One thing we canlearn from the Jewish Diaspora in order to problematise the question of identity is thatno matter how complex and mixed a diaspora is 'you cannot not belong' (Eceheruo,1999:9). Additionally, and playing into this, is the question of race. Whereas blackpeople may have, as Gilroy expounds, some room to manoeuvre this space is not, incontrast to Gilroy's model, limitless.

... the predicament for those who have a problem choosing where to belong is that theycannot quite get themselves to realize that their options in the matter are very limitedindeed. Put bluntly, they have none. Paul Gilroy does not have a choice of identities. It is aspurious sermon therefore to speak (as Gilroy does) in this context of the 'instability andmutability of identities which are alzvays unfinished, always being remade (Gilroy,1993:xi; Eceheruo, 1999:9).

So, the dynamics of identity within diaspora are highly complex and, to an extent,contingent on other factors. This process of 'articulation'

is thus the form of the connection that can make a unity of two different elements, undercertain conditions. It is a linkage which is not necessary, determined, absolute and essential

for all time (Grossberg, 1995:141 cited in Patterson and Kelley, 2000:19).

The key is to see that this articulation is constrained by racial, gender and economicforces so that individuals within diaspora are not infinitely free to determine theirown identities.

This brings us onto one final element in diasporic consciousness; the question ofreturn. Much has been made in the diaspora about the issue of return. Thephilanthropic movements, which saw the establishment of Sierra Leone and Liberia,

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were aimed at returning Africans to their 'true' homes. Similarly, a pillar of MarcusGarvey's vision was a return to Africa movement for which he started the Black Starshipping line while scholars and artists such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Steve Wonder setup homes in Ghana. However, again we must avoid generalising about the place ofreturn in shaping the diasporic consciousness. For example, Whoopi Goldberg stated

I've gotten a lot of trouble for saying I'm American instead of African American. But I'vebeen to Africa ... and believe me, I'm American (cited in Wamba, 2000:xv).

Different individuals and groups have different relations to 'home' and return. Again,some see Africa in idealistic terms as a pristine haven or, according to theAfrocentrists, it was until white people came and despoiled it.

Others see home in pluralistic ways as a dynamic historical entity which continues tochange so that it is meaningless to think of an authentic home to return to. What wehave are multiple imaginings of home depending upon circumstances and level ofconsciousness. For example, in talking about the relationship between Caribbeanidentity and the African home, Stuart Hall comments '(T)he original "Africa" is nolonger there. It too has been transformed. History is, in that sense, irreversible' (1990:233). Such an understanding leads Kwame Appiah to argue quite emphatically that'whatever Africans share, we do not have a common traditional culture, commonlanguage, common religious or conceptual vocabulary' (Appiah, 1993:26). In boththese comments we can see home and exile as two dynamic ends of a complex processof spiritual and physical linkage. The power of return and home is captured in Brah's(1996) idea of 'homing', which is a lingering desire that may or may not be realised inreality. As Eceheruo argues "The power of the idea lies in the principle of it; that areturn is possible forever, whenever, if ever' (1999:4). This 'prophetic expectation' ofreturn marks the diasporic identity out as different from other groups' identities.

The Spatial & Temporal Dynamics of the African DiasporaGiven the foregoing discussion it becomes apparent that we need to have a flexibleframework for analysing the African Diaspora, but not one so flexible that it loses anyconceptual value. The insistence on the dynamism of identity formation in the contextof overarching racial and gendered hierarchies forces us to rethink both thegeography and history of the African Diaspora. In this sub-section we look at both theperiodisation and spatialisation of the African Diaspora before arguing that diasporasoverlap which has a number of practical implications for politics. We also discuss theways in which diasporas shade into other transnational social formations, namelynetworks, whose organising principle may be more pragmatic and less identity-based.

In terms of periodising the African Diaspora we have two slightly different, butcomplementary analyses (Okpewho, 1999; Akyeampong, 2000). Okpewho (1999) seesthree phases or 'paradigms' of experience which link America and Africa and are partof a wider capitalist imperative. The first era was the labour imperative involving theslave trade, the second era was the territorial imperative involving colonialism, whilethe third era was the extractive imperative involving minerals and other rawmaterials. Each of these eras created new forces, which propelled Africans, eitherforcibly or voluntarily, into diaspora. Akyeampong (2000) follows Harris (1982) in histemporal schema, which is less tied to logic of capitalism and more to a form of step-wise movement. He argues,

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The primary stage is the original dispersion out of Africa [especially through the slavetrade]; the secondary stage occurs with migrations from the initial settlement abroad to asecond area abroad; the tertiary stage is movement to a third area abroad; and thecirculatory stage involves movements among the several areas abroad and may includeAfrica (Harris, 1982:8-9).

Like any historical schema these divisions are ideal-typical and can never capture allthe variety of experiences. It also raises questions about the 'Arab slave trade' whichwas less a form of proto-capitalism and, therefore, not amenable to the same analysis.What both schemas show is that the forces generating the African Diaspora havevaried over time which does affect the forms of consciousness that we find. So, wemust always be aware that while diaspora has certain heuristic and political value it'has always been employed (invoked) in such a way as to hide the differences anddiscontinuities' (Patterson and Kelley, 2000:20). Some of these are resolutely spatial.

The spatialisation of the African Diaspora is perhaps even more debatable than itshistoriography and tells us a great deal about politics and ideology within thediaspora. As noted earlier much of the debate about the African Diaspora has beendominated by discussion of the West African, slavery-induced victim experience.Indeed, the forcible nature of this displacement does indeed make it more trulydiasporic if we follow the Jewish model. However, if we include the idea of commonidentity as defining diaspora then the importance of expulsion is lessened. Spatially,we need to move away from simply privileging the 'Black Atlantic' experience andlook at more complex geographies of the African Diaspora. Patterson and Kelley(2000) usefully conjecture about the 'Black Mediterranean' or the 'Black Indian Ocean'while West (2000) adds the 'black Pacific'. West goes on to argue that this singularfocus on the Atlantic slave trade as the foundational moment in the African Diasporais the result of a largely American led effort to make visible three centuries ofexploitation. While clearly understandable, this historical project has tended torender invisible a wide range of alternative diasporic experiences. This can be seen ifwe look briefly at the East African slave trade.

Segal (1998) has argued that the Islamic slave trade of East Africa may well haveinvolved equal numbers of people and lasted for a much longer time. An interestingquestion is why should scholars and activists be so much more aware of one slaveryexperience than another? The answer is not simple and lies in the nature of the slaveryitself and the forms of political action it generated. The first thing is that slavery inIslam was less exploitative. This is not to say it was easy on the slaves or morallydefensible, but it was less tied to a proto-capitalist logic. In the Atlantic trade slaveswere treated as commodities, which denied their humanity. By contrast Islamicslavery was directed to services because in Islamic societies agriculture was notplantation-based and labour was not in short supply. Here African slaves becameconcubines, maids, porters, guards, builders or cooks. Crucially, slavery constituted aform of consumption rather than a factor of production with many more womenbecoming slaves compared with the Atlantic trade. Another factor in the differenttreatment of these two forms of slavery related to the nature of the state. In Islam thestate and religion were coterminous whereas in Christian states there were strongmoves towards secularism and the 'national' interest. For Islamic states divine powerwas more important than the national economic and political interest so that slaveswere treated as people rather than chattels. Without romanticising the conditions ofslaves, the economic system of Islam was not geared so much to private accumulationand capitalism so that its objectification of labour did not develop. A furtherimportant element was that the Koran denounces racism, which was the underpin-

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ning logic of the Atlantic trade. Given that slavery went against the basic principles ofChristianity it could only be legitimated through a racist logic, which deemedAfricans to be sub-human and therefore only fit for menial labour and, to some extent,beyond the purview of Christian morality.

Spatially, socially and politically it is useful to think not of homogenous and discretediasporas, but of overlapping and complementary ones. Like identity, people do notbelong solely to one group, but occupy multiple subject or group positions. Diasporasform in relation to other diasporas so that:

Africa was not the only disapora to which African descendants belonged ... Africandescendents were contributors to and participants in the construction of other diasporas(Byfield, 2000:5).

For example, Rastafarians took on the spiritual use of marijuana from Hindus in theCaribbean (West, 1996), Pan-Africanists learned from the Irish republican movement,Mahatma Gandhi developed many of his strategies following his experience of blackoppression in South Africa (Patterson and Kelley, 2000) while the Dalits in Indialearned from the tactics of the Black Power Movement (Prashad, 2000). Indeed, muchof Paul Gilroy's (1987) There Ain't No Black in the Union Jackfocuses upon the 'culturalpolitics of race and nation' and the interaction between a deterritorialised, diasporicconsciousness and the concrete local, urban, and territorialized experiences whichgenerate a multitude of 'hybrid' cultural practices and political responses. He asserts:

Black Britain defines itself crucially as part of a Diaspora. Its unique cultures drawinspiration from those developed by black populations elsewhere. In particular, the cultureand politics of black America and the Caribbean have become raw materials for creativeprocesses, which redefine what it means to be black, adapting it to distinctively Britishexperiences and meanings. Black culture is actively made and re-made (Gilroy, 1987:154).

Diasporas & NetworksThese questions of identity and of diffuse and overlapping diasporas brings us ontothe issue of diasporas and networks. Diaspora, as we have argued, implies some kindof shared consciousness and of deterritorialised 'belonging', which in turn generatesand enables common political, cultural or economic endeavours. However, there isevidence that suggests that such cultural constructs do not always prevail. The tiesthat bind may be much weaker and more ephemeral than the notion of diasporaallows for. That is not to say that some form of identification operates, but it may notbe as solid or long-term as that found in a well-established diaspora. In these cases wesee networks of, for example, country folk, ethnic grouping or race which effecttangible economic and political gains, but which are not of a diaspora.

Consider the case of Congolese traders in Europe. MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga's study suggests that the traders

were not part of any structured trade Diaspora but operated as individuals ... personalnetworks ... are not structured and permanent but are activated when they are needed byindividuals trading on their own behalf, and not as part of ethnic trading communities(2000:12).

They felt the traders were too individualistic and opportunistic to be considered atrue diaspora. However, their trade is organised through various co-operativecultural ties while their shared 'pariah' status forces new bonds to develop. This

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cultural identity was formed around 'la debrouillardise' (meaning to fend for yourselfin order to survive) and 'la Sape' (a stylistic movement which values Europeandesigner labels and conspicuous consumption, members of which are called sapeurs).

Similarly, other studies show that for ethnic business networks 'embeddedness' and'social capital' are central to their success. For newly arrive immigrants, 'participation ina pre-existing ethnic economy can have positive economic consequences, including agreater opportunity for self-employment' (Portes and Jensen, 1987:768). Eventually, the'solitary ethnic community represents simultaneously, a market for culturally definedgoods, a pool of reliable low-wage labor, and a potential source of start-up capital'(Portes and Sensenbrenner, 1993:1329). However, while intra-ethnic business can be asource of advantage in the face of hostile political, economic and social forces in a hostcountry it can also be a disadvantage, because ethnic loyalty may prevent actors frommaximising their economic opportunities. In reality, economic actors, especially themore astute and powerful, 'switch' ethnic affiliation and diasporic identity on and offdepending upon the relative advantages to be gained by either strategy.

Ong (1993) has demonstrated this in her study of Hong Kong Chinese businesssnetworks. As global capitalism has entered the era of 'flexible accumulation',multinational capital has decentralised and uses greater numbers of sub-contractors.This shift produces complex business networks, which exploit dynamic marketopportunities and increasingly fluid 'comparative advantages' of multiple sites. AsDirlik (1997:309) argues 'diasporic populations may also be strategically well-placedto deal with some of the demands of transnational production and other transactionsthat are transnational in scope'. So, previous Chinese diasporic networks are perfectlysuited to exploit the new terrain of global capitalism. These networks may be basedaround certain cultural affinities, but these are by no means static and aredifferentially exploited depending on market and political opportunities. As Ong(1993:770) observes:

Their flexible strategies have been devised not to collaborate in the biopolitical agenda of anynation-state, but to convert political constraints in one field into economic opportunities inanother, to turn displacement into advantageous positioning in a range of local contexts,and to elude national corporate interests in order to reproduce the bio-power of the familyanywhere that capitalist opportunities are present.

Crucially, the class dimension is important, because those best able to exploit theseopportunities are from the upper classes, while working classes only feature as the'nimble fingers' exploited in New York sweatshops or Economic Processing Zones inChina and clearly benefit less profitably from the supposedly humanistic Confuciancapitalism.

What is also interesting is that ethnic identity tends to be re-fashioned, if not fullycreated, in diaspora. Portes and Sensenbrenner (1993:1328) discuss the fortunes ofItalian immigrants to America

whose original loyalties did not extend much beyond their local villages. These immigrantslearned to think of themselves as Italian and to band together on that basis after the nativepopulation began to treat them in the same manner and to apply the same derogatory labels.

This is a case where social capital and group identity were formed in response to thehostile treatment by the host. Hence, the very existence and density of ethnic networksis affected by the hostility of the host society, which creates 'uncertainty'. Portes(1997:7-8) argues that immigrant business networks:

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Conceptualising the Role of the African Diaspoms in Africa's Development 223

tend to generate solidarity by virtue of generalized uncertainty. Exchange under conditionsof uncertainty creates stronger bonds among participants than that which takes place with

full information and impartially enforced rules.

These observations suggest that different diasporic configurations operate indifferent ways and with different implications for development. We propose a three-fold classification (from Mohan, 2002) for examining the positive linkages betweendiaspora and development. First, development in the diaspora where people withindiasporic communities use their localised diasporic connections within the 'host'country to secure economic and social well being and, as a by-product, contribute tothe development of their locality. Second, development through the diaspora wherebydiasporic communities utilise their diffuse global connections beyond the locality tofacilitate economic and social well-being. Third, development by the diaspora in whichdiasporic flows and connections back 'home' facilitate the development - and,sometimes, creation - of these 'homelands'. These categories, and the relationshipsbetween them, are fluid and blurred, reflecting the inherent tensions betweendeterritorialisation and fixity that characterise diasporas. For example, a Congolesetrader in Paris, living with diasporic contacts, selling T-shirts sourced from a familymember in Hong Kong, and sending part of the profits back to his/her extendedfamily straddles all three categories.

Issues in Diasporic DevelopmentWe have argued that diasporas are fragile deterritorialised communities whoseidentities is shifting, multiple and overlapping. However, in contrast to those who seethis cultural dynamism as limitless and empowering we feel that the realities ofgendered and racial hierarchies means that there are enough similarities to allow co-identification, even where this is largely in response to hostile treatment by others onthe basis of skin colour. We have also argued that this identity is not always strong sothat networked relationships, which are more pragmatic and functional, may beinvoked in order to deal with pressing material concerns. Finally, we have argued thatthe 'geography' of diasporas and networks enables us to analyse differentconfigurations of actors with diverse agendas. In this section we examine these inmore detail.

Embeddedness, Networks & InstitutionsIn terms of diasporic development in place the shared identity of displacedcommunities can be both a problem and a disguised blessing. Some communitiesexperience hostility from their 'hosts', based on absolute beliefs in difference, whichcan be demoralising and dangerous. On the other hand, this hostility may force groupmembers to draw on each other and take advantage of shared meanings, which thenbecomes a source of spiritual strength and competitive advantage. Fellow members ofdiasporic communities can be trusted more readily and may work more flexibly andcheaply for someone who is facing similar problems. In turn this can strengthen thesense of group identity as networks of ethnically-based businesses develop.

Spatially, such close connections between ethnic group members may generate andstrengthen the tendency to cluster in 'enclaves', such as ghettoes and China Towns,although there is no necessary link between an ethnic business network and its spatialconcentration (Portes and Jensen, 1987). However, such processes of agglomerationare not solely the result of cultural affinity, but are usually influenced by other factorssuch as racist real estate markets, the cost of property, the wealth of the ethnic

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community and the legal status of individuals. For small firms serving local markets,which constitute the majority of diaspora business, the importance of proximity forinformation exchange is vital to establishing reputation and respect. Word getsaround about who can be relied upon, so it is in this context that one of Waldinger's(1995:565) respondents claims 'New York is a small town (where) good and bad newstravel fast'.

In two studies of the African Diaspora (Arthur, 2000; MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga, 2000:58) new diasporic members, either in order to migrate or on arrival,make use of existing diasporic contacts. Again, this varies between the casesdepending upon the legality or illegality of the migrant. In the American study(Arthur, 2000), new immigrants need to have letters of sponsorship, which may be aneducational institution or a family member already in residence. On arrival they usecontacts from within their diasporic communities to settle in. However, it is here thatwe need to be specific about how we define and delimit a community. Obviously, incases where a migrant is joining a relation, it is they who help socialise the newarrival. In addition, there are formal organisations set up around particular ethnic,national or interest groupings. For example, in Atlanta there are Ashanti and Ewemutual aid associations, both of which relate to ethnic groups in contemporaryGhana. However, there are also Ghanaian associations, alumni organisations of thoseeducated in Ghana, as well as more general immigrant support organisations. Theseformal organisations have

become a vital part of the network of associative relationships. Immigrants have alwaysestablished such associations in host countries to forge closer ties among themselves,tvith the members of the host society, and with their places of birth. The Africanimmigrant associations are the building blocks for the creation of African culturalcommunities in the United States (Arthur, 2000:71, emphasis added).

This forging of ties is both in place and across space and clearly links thedevelopmental fortunes of Africans living at home and abroad. For the Congolesetraders in Paris such organisations are impossible given their illegal status and theyare forced to rely on more informal contacts. MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga alsouse the concept of 'social capital', which for them relates to individual and familyconnections, kinship relations, ethnic affiliation, religious grouping or politicalcontacts. All these may be drawn upon to enable the trader to pursue his or hercommercial activities. In both cases, the Africans tend to stay relatively separate fromtheir white 'hosts'. In America, the African middle classes tend to 'form much closerrelationships with black immigrants of the African Diaspora ... than they do with thenative-born black American population' (Arthur, 2000:80).

Remittances & ReturnMuch of the work on migration and development has focused on the question ofremittances (Durand, Parado, and Massey, 1996). While notoriously difficult tocalculate there is an assumption that by fuelling consumption and benefitingrelatively well off households, remittances are of limited developmental use intackling poverty although the assumption is rarely backed up by sustained empiricalanalysis.

In order to understand the dynamics of remittances and return it is essential tounderstand both the motivations for migrating and the concrete developmentalobligations that this entails. In many African economies the question of risk is an ever-

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present consideration in any livelihood decisions. Where economic uncertainty andhyperinflation exist, migration can be a major adjustment mechanism. Indeed,migration has become a pre-eminent survival strategy for many African households(Akyeampong, 2000; MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga, 2000).

The classic study by Harris and Todaro (1970) argued that migrants act as individualsbased on optimising criteria. However, evidence suggests that the decision to migrateis located at the household level whereby family members see migration as a form ofportfolio diversification, which spreads risks between various income-generatingactivities. As a decision based within the family it places strong obligations on themigrants to succeed and to send money and capital goods back to those left behind.For example, MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga (2000) discuss lusolo, which is aCongolese belief that 'success in commerce is a gift that is inherited in the family andthat the wealth it brings belongs to the family and should be shared among them'(2000:126). These 'pressures for redistribution' are strong and clearly link the diasporato development. Similarly, Arthur reports of one migrant whose failure to sendremittances resulted in virtual ostracisation with his father exclaiming, 'When you diemake sure you are buried in America' (2000:134).

The problem of calculating the size of remittance flows, as AFFORD (2000) note, isthat only about 50 per cent of them go through official channels. However, forexample, it has been estimated that for Cape Verde, remittances accounted for around17 per cent of GDP. Similarly, Akyeampong (2000) asserts that Ghanaians in the USAremitted between $250 and $350 million per year throughout the 1990s withremittances outstripping FDI for every year between 1983 and 1990. A proxy of thegrowing importance of remittances to African economies is given by the growth ofmoney transfer agencies. As Chikezie-Fergusson observes

Little wonder that money transfer companies such as Western Union and Money Gramhave raised their profile among African communities: they are competing for business withthe hundreds of African-owned money transfer ventures that are the lifeline for increasinglyimpoverished families in Africa with relatives (2000:12-13).

Such transnational communities are characterised

by an increasing number of people who lead dual lives. Members are at least bilingual, moveeasily between different cultures, frequently maintain homes in two countries, and pursueeconomic, political, and cultural interests that require a simultaneous presence in both(Portes, 1997:16).

Among the Chinese diaspora such a duality earns these people the title 'astronaut'because they float in orbit between and above fixed locales (Ong, 1993).

More recent work on migration and development is beginning to explore the role ofreturnees (Ammassari and Black, 2001; The Courier ACP-EU, 2001) who bring withthem financial, human and social capital and return to their home countries on amore-or-less permanent basis. While return does occur, it is often too risky so thatliving multiple lives and juggling locales is a form of risk spreading, both physically(in terms of personal safety) and financially (in terms of diversifying assets). Forexample, Portes (1997) discusses the efforts made by Mexicans in New York and theregular contacts they maintain with their home pueblo. Such contact has been madeincreasingly easy and relatively cheap due to advances in information andcommunication technologies. Full-scale return is the exception rather than the rule,which helps explain the limited success of schemes such as the International

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Organisation of Migration's, which aims to encourage professionals in the diaspora toreturn. Given the relatively high wages the migrants receive abroad such schemes areprohibitively expensive if realistic incentives for return are to be offered. If we acceptthat circulation rather than return is more normal then we must focus on both theindividual and collective mechanisms by which developmental linkages are achievedand the impacts of these activities on the homelands.

More commonplace, then, is a multi-locale strategy (Trager, 2001). The case ofBeatrice in MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga's (2000) study demonstrates how sheultimately wants to establish production units in Congo, but has experiencedembezzlement of her money and so is looking at more diverse opportunities acrossthe globe until the situation is more predictable.

She bought equipment for a medical office with the profits of her trade. It went intooperation, but was managed by a Congolese who embezzled the funds so that she had to closeit down. She plans to sell the equipment to the General Hospital and has the necessarycontacts there to do so ... She plans to develop trade with Nigeria because it is a hugecountry and she has family connections there. She already knows wholesalers eager to buyT-shirts she has seen in the United States. She also plans new lines of business inSwitzerland, where she has other connections (2000:162/3).

The respondents in Arthur's (2000) study recognise the extreme difficulty andriskiness of doing business in Africa, but seem more optimistic than those in Paris.Arthur's survey showed that 80 per cent of his respondents intended to return toAfrica once they were wealthy enough and the political and economic climate hadstabilised. Hence, 'most African immigrants structure their economic decision-making by focussing on the long-term economic potential of their homelands.Participation in the economic development of their countries of origin are paramount'(Arthur, 2000:129). As one Ghanaian stated:

Why should I spend over $100,000 for a house in the United States paying an interest ofabout 8 percent for thirty years when with only $20,0001 could build a nice two-storeybuilding or purchase one in (one) of the exclusive communities in the Accra-Tema area ...We have banks in Ghana now that will allow you to draw your money in dollars once youhave a foreign account. Life doesn't get better than this (2000:128).

However, the attractiveness of such ventures clearly depends upon the political andeconomic stability of the African country in question and the well-being of thediasporic individual.

Development OrganisationsHowever, not all support for 'home' is through individual or family transfers.Organisations are playing an increasingly important role in linking the diaspora toAfrican development. As Cohen's (1997) typology outlined earlier states, a keyelement in diasporas is their support for a homeland. In a subsequent sub-section weexamine the nationalist implications of this aspect of diaspora, whereas in this sub-section we look at the ways in which organisations support development. In studyingrefugee communities in Britain Al-Ali, Black and Koser (1999:7) argue

activities which sustain or support the society and culture of the home country within theexile community are considered by both communities to be equally important in shaping the

future of the home country.

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Hence, the well-being of diasporic Africans and Africa are not distinct activities, butmutually implicated. One of the key dimensions in determining the capacity tosupport home country activities is the degree of integration within the host society. Ifthe migrant lacks the right to work and/or faces routine hostility from the host stateor individuals, they are less likely to express opinions or be able to afford to sendfinancial support home. The legal status of the migrant or refugee is also crucial,because if they are illegal or awaiting residency status, they are in a weak position toorganise support for others. A further influence on the ability of individuals andgroups to support activities back home is the existence, or their awareness of,organisations dedicated to such activities.

AFFORD (Ndofor-Tah, 2000) have identified a range of developmental organisationengaged in a variety of activities. They are hometown associations, ethnicassociations, alumni associations, religious associations, professional associations,development NGOs, investment groups, political groups, national developmentgroups, welfare/refugee groups, supplementary schools, and virtual organisations.The types of activities include community-to-community transfers, identity-build-ing/awareness raising, lobbying in current home on issues relating to ancestral home,trade with and investment in ancestral home, transfers of intangible resources,support for development on a more 'professional' basis and payment of taxes in theancestral home.

The assumption, quite rightly, is that Diasporic connections contribute to a morerelevant and sustainable form of development, because people from those areasshould know best what is needed (Honey and Okafor, 1998). Certainly, the potentialexists for a 'different' approach to development aid. However, a number of key issuesremain. First, do diaspora NGOs simply repeat the earlier mistakes of somedevelopment organisations by funding discrete welfare projects whose sustainabilityand accountability is not guaranteed? Additionally, are these flows strongly partisanand, therefore, divisive and exclusionary? Trager's (2001) study showed that thosewho were active in the local community organisations, whether in situ or via supportfrom afar, tended to be elites with men dominating the decision-making. Hence, it canbe argued that such initiatives are participatory in that the initial impetus was notimposed by external development agencies, but such participation is not community-wide. Trager also shows that much of this philanthropic activity relates to improvingones status in the local community and proving what a big success you have becomein the city. Again, such self-aggrandisement, sometimes linked to party politicking,could be argued to undermine the developmental benefits of such activity.

Related to these issues is the (potential) role of diaspora NGOs and otherorganisations in shaping political debate and influencing broader developmentalprocesses in Africa. For example, could the diaspora use its relative political freedomto make claims on their 'home' governments, the actions of whom may haveprecipitated the need to emigrate in the first place? Evidence from work on refugees(Al-Ali, Black, and Koser, 1999) suggests that they can play an active role in lobbyingand advocacy free from the restrictive human rights abuses of their home countries. Insuch direct and indirect ways the diaspora could contribute to internationaldevelopmental efforts which impact positively on the national and local levels. Wereturn to these issues in more detail below.

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Religious NetworksA further element of this associational life is that of religious belonging andorganisation. Crucially, religious life is not separated off from other parts of peoples'lives (Fuglerud, 1999) and influences economic and political behaviour. However, wedo not concur with Chabal and Daloz (1999) that this is re-traditionalisation involvinga return to the 'irrational'. Indeed, contemporary religious belief is anything buttraditional in that it relates to societies' relationship with globalisation andmodernity. For example, Beatrice the Congolese trader in Paris we mentioned earlierutilises her religious contacts around the world to facilitate her business. That is, 'Todeal with the problems of doing business and finding her way in strange countries,cities, languages and cultures, she takes advantage of her membership in theAssociation for the Reunification of the Christian World' (MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga, 2000:101). So, not only is the line between the religious group and theindividual blurred but so too is the line between religion and commerce.

Other studies have highlighted the linkages between economic hardship and politicalturmoil in Africa and the rise of fundamentalist churches (Haynes, 1995; Gifford,1991; Marshall, 1991; Chabal and Daloz, 1999). What is interesting is that many ofthese churches are internationally networked and link the diaspora both spirituallyand materially. The rise of Pentecostalism in Ghana is emblematic of this. AsAkyeampong (2000: 208) writes:

The Pentecostal experience has become crucial to the Ghanaian encounter with globalizationand modernity ... the Pentecostal agenda is a modern one that celebrates the trans-nationaland the trans-cultural embodied in international mobility and the expression of emotion.

Such networks permit the exchange of ideas, commodities and people. WhilstPentecostalism continues as a major challenge to the orthodox churches in thediaspora, in Africa itself Pentecostalism has outpaced orthodoxy for the heart andminds of Christian believers. A church such as Canaanland in Ota, Ogun State,Nigeria, claim some 50,000 worshippers each week, and has a forty year plan to forexpansion, including setting up of universities (Covenant University) throughout thecontinent, whilst crisis-ridden African states can hardly produce a ten-yeardevelopment plan. Both fundamentalist creeds (Christianity and Islam) continue tooccupy the vacuum created by the informalisation and atomisation of the Africanstate. In the diaspora, the significance of the church continues to grow. Indeed, as thecase of Beatrice demonstrates, the first port of call for many new migrants is the localbranch of the church. From there new social and economic connections can flourish.In addition to ideas and contacts, the churches may provide security in countrieswhere racial prejudice can make the lives of Africans uncomfortable or evendangerous. The church in the diaspora continues to act both as a rites de passage insocialising the new migrant to his/ her new environment, as well as maintainingcontact with home.

Hybridity & the Commodification of 'African Culture'The rise in African consciousness among some minorities in North America andWestern Europe has been accompanied by an increase commodification of Africancultural artrifacts, in particular, the woven Kente cloth from Ghana. Kente with itsbright colours are not simply symbols of Afrocentricity, but also it is used to adornchurch altars and the waistline of priests. Other textiles appropriated by culturalnationalists include: Adinkira from Ghana, country cloth ronko and garra (tied dye) fromSierra Leone. These are used not just in making attires, but also used as bedspreads

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and pillowcases, curtains and tablecloths. These materials have generated tremen-dous demand particularly in North America to the point that merchant capitalistswho organise their evacuation from artisan producers are now beginning to subjugatea small number of artisans, by insisting that they produce to specific patterns, stylesand quantities (Zack-Williams, 2002).

As we argued earlier the culturalist leanings of many studies of diaspora produceddetailed studies of the survival of African 'traditions' within the diaspora and thedegree to which they have been transformed, syncretised and hybridised. Paul Gilroy(1987. 1993a, 2000) has written extensively upon the cultural politics of the AfricanDiaspora and, as we mentioned earlier, sees culture as fluid and always in the processof becoming. While he has been criticised for his overly optimistic view of thefreedom of human agency and identity formation his work has engaged productivelywith questions of hybridity, which produces cultural forms, which are 'stereophonic,bilingual, or bifocal' (1993b). For example, in discussing musical forms he argues

Bob Marley's reggae was, like all reggae, a hybrid marked as much by its ties to Americanrhythm and blues as by its roots in Men to and calypso ... the hip-hop scene formed as theJamaican sound system culture was adapted to the experiences of urban New York. Thisexpressive sub-culture has in turn been imported into Britain as a style in its own right.Hip-hop revels in the reduction of music to its essential African components of rhythm andvoice (Gilroy, 1987:172 & 211).

In later work he examined traces of certain musical traditions from Africa and theirtransformation in diaspora. He sees 'antiphony', that is call-and-response, as being acentral element in which 'Lines between self and other are blurred and special formsof pleasure are created as a result' (1993a:138). Such traditions are more open todramaturgy and innovation, which is evident in contemporary styles such as jazz andhip-hop. Hence,

If there us a lesson in the broad shape of this circulation of cultures, it is surely that we arealready contaminated by each other, that there is no longer a fully autochthonous echt-African culture awaiting salvage by our artists (just as there is, of course, no Americanculture without African roots) (Appiah, 1991:354)

Appiah has also written on the commodification of African culture. In one article heexplores the idea of 'neo-traditionalism' in African art. He argues that

Simply put, what is distinctive about this genre is that it is produced for the West... Mostof this art - traditional because it uses actual or supposed pre-colonial techniques, but neo-... because it has elements that are recognizably colonial or post colonial in reference - hasbeen made for Western tourists and other collectors (1991:346).

Campbell (1997) analyses the reasons why such art is increasingly popular and sees itas a response to the failure of modernity. He labels the current fixation with ethnicityas a form of 'modern primitivism' which 'has acquired cult status in the rudderlessWest of the 1990s. Only the ethnic is held to be genuinely human nowadays. Theargument is that if Western society is to recapture its lost humanity, it must immerseitself in the authentic values of primitive society and dispense with any expectationsof modernization and progress' (1997:14). Such primitivism is not only to be found inart but other cultural 'sciences' packaged under various new age banners. Theseinclude shamanism, body piercing, and folk rituals. Campbell adds to this variousdevelopmental discourses harking back to 'traditions' such as grassroots sustainabilityand participatory appraisal. He states:

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interpreting African dire necessity as a product of 'indigenous knowledge' rather than aproduct of grinding poverty, the concept of indigenism can then be served up to gullibleWesterners as a 'sustainable' system that they should be proud to live by (1997:50/1).

Hence the consumption of African art and culture reflects deep-seated anxieties aboutthe Western capitalist trajectory, but simultaneously commodifies this anxiety and,therefore, can do nothing to break the cycle. Hence, such consumption is unable tobreak from its own limitations.

Politics in the Diaspora & the Diaspora in PoliticsThe discussion of development organisations above made the obvious point thatdevelopment is not, nor ever has been, a technical matter of getting things right, but isa highly political and politicised process. The implications of this for diasporicactivities are made more complex by the deterritorialised nature of their organisation.Indeed, the process of displacement, movement and re-placement to a new localitygenerates its own peculiar forms of political consciousness (Papastergiadis, 2000). Inthis sub-section we discuss the politics of and in the diaspora. This involves, first,discussions of nationalism, the (re)creation of homelands and democratisation and,second, the ideology of Pan-Africanism.

The idea of homeland is loaded with gendered metaphors with motherlandssuggesting nurturing and fatherlands evoking the patriarchal protector. On top ofthese metaphors are those which tie populations to their territories, as if by nature, sothat biological metaphors such as lebensraunt (literally 'living space' in German)underpin racial and ethnic exclusivity. A product of and reaction to this purificationof space and exclusivity is the longing amongst the displaced for a haven of their own.As Cohen (1997:106) notes 'Just as the evocation of "homeland" is used as a means ofexclusion, so the excluded may see having a land of their own as a deliverance fromtheir travails in foreign lands'. So, this political vision is inseparable from a culturalimagination of home and a desire to belong.

One important observation is that "The marginal position of the migrant, and thespecial qualities of group formation among exiles, seem in general to play asignificant role in the formulation of nationalist discourse' (van der Veer, 1995:5).Evidence from Irish American supporters of Irish republicanism (Cullen, 1998),Jewish supporters of Zionism (Elazar, no date), and diasporic Hindu fundamentalists(Khapre, 2000) suggests that those in exile often have a more idealised and purifiednotion of what their nation should be. In such cases nationalist organisations in thehome country rely, to a large extent, on the financial support of the diaspora. Theparadox of many of these extremist and violent nationalist organisations is that thediasporic members support their activities at arm's length, but do not have to livewith the realities of paramilitaries and a police state. It is ironic that the US arefreezing diasporic Somali bank accounts which they believe may support terroristswhile ignoring, for example, the large amounts of funding that the IRA received fromIrish Americans or which flows from sections of the powerful Jewish lobby to supportundemocratic activities in Palestine. This points to the politics of defining andsupporting 'legitimate' and 'illegitimate' nationalist aspirations.

An interesting example of the coming together of diaspora, development and nationalaspirations is the University of Hargeisa in Somaliland (www.somalilandforum.com/UOH.htm). As AFFORD (2000) note:

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Initiated in mid-1997, this effort united Somalis in Somaliland itself with Somali's in theDiaspora as far-flung as Australia, Sweden, Kuwait, the United States, and Britain. Theproject enjoyed support by the government of Somaliland, a territory still withoutinternational recognition. A steering committee in London that combined Somali expertiseand leadership with British know-how and experience worked in close collaboration with aninterim council in Somaliland. Local businesses in Somaliland took full responsibility forrehabilitating the government-donated dilapidated old-school building that was in facthome to over 500 returned Somali refugees. Somalis in Sweden provided 750 chairs andtables; Kuwait-based Somalis sent computers. In the project's second year, the SomalilandForum, a cyberspace-based global network of Somalis formed taskforces to tackle specificelements, raised money, maintained email groups and hosted real-time e-conferences(AFFORD, 2000:10).

For a 'nation' like Somaliland that lacks international recognition, the setting up of anational university is clearly of great practical and symbolic importance. Wherepolitical institutions lack international legitimacy a university stands for much morethan a seat of learning. It embodies the nascent will of the nation and adds to theweight of claims for national recognition. More practically, a university providestraining and education that will hopefully produce skilled people willing to work forthe good of the nation. Ultimately it may provide employment opportunities for thoseeducated Somalis who have migrated and were the force behind the university'sestablishment. The Hargeisa example also demonstrates the power of commonidentity within a diaspora. Somaliland is very much an 'imagined community' and itis the diaspora that is leading the consolidation of this vision. Such collaboration andactivism is made possible by the technologies of globalisation, which mostcommentators analyse with respect to large-scale financial interactions or inter-personal communications. The Hargeisa example shows how sophisticated network-ing between organisations across the globe can bring about tangible developmentalbenefits in a form of 'globalisation from below'.

A related element of political activity in diaspora is around democratisation andhuman rights. As some states have entered progressive legitimacy crises they havetended to clamp down on political dissent, which can escalate into violence andmurder. In turn this sets up waves of out-migration either as people flee the potentialrisk of persecution or leave as formal political refugees. While far from perfect, theirdiasporic location may permit them the political space to lobby against repressiveregimes; a space which is flatly denied to them at home. For example, current mediaactivity against the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe is being orchestrated from SouthLondon and has, allegedly, been supported by the US and British governments.Similarly, during the early years of Jerry Rawlings' rule in Ghana a number of leftactivists were exiled to London from where they launched anti-PNDC campaigns. Inneither case are we arguing for the inherent veracity and purity of these politicalcampaigns, but to make the point that given domestic repression they are onlypossible from a diasporic location. Indeed, one could argue further that given thegeographical and political closeness of the diaspora to the centres of global decision-making in London, Paris, New York and Washington it should be better placed tolobby for changes in development policy towards the continent. So, in addition tosupporting African-based civil society movements and political parties, the diasporacould bring a more informed political voice to policy-makers in Europe and NorthAmerica.

The idealisation and romanticisation of home in part underpins the series of Pan-Africanist discourses of the last century. However, a striking difference is that in Pan-

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Africanist discourses the 'homeland' is not a discrete nation or nation-state, but anentire continent. In some cases this has been attacked as an essentialist understandingof Africa as home, because it implied that there was some unique essence that unitedall the people of this vast continent - whether there or in exile. Trying to capture thesevarious understandings of Africa amongst the diaspora is a massive task (Fryer, 1984;Magubane, 1987; Gilroy, 1993a/b; Howe, 1998; Ackah, 1999) and well beyond thepurview of this article. The key point we wish to make is that as an ideologicaldiscourse and political movement, Pan-Africanism was largely a product of diaspora.

As Magubane notes, Pan-Africansim was a challenge to white supremacy and linkedstruggles in the UK and America with de-colonisation movements in Africa.Magubane argues that the experience of racism in diaspora generated this form ofconsciousness because there was a lower sense of rootedness and less social supportstructures compared with Africa. That is, 'Pan-Africanism was one way in whichthese experiences (of racial exploitation) were translated into terms understandable topeople who, because of their experience in diaspora, had been deprived of commontraditions, value systems and institutional forms' (1987:128). The key players of earlyPan-Africanist movements were elite educated and activist intellectuals as opposed toacademics. Even these early movements were infused with problems of strategy,vision and constituency with, for example, Garvey appealing aggressively to workingclass blacks and Du Bois attempting more phased reform of key institutions.

It is difficult to assess the concrete effects of Pan-Africanist ideas and activities, butthey clearly influenced the thinking of a generation of African leaders who werepreparing their nations for independence around the time of the Second World War.As Magubane (1987:135) states, by the time Du Bois died 'the movement for Pan-Africanism had returned to Africa and had become a profound ideology forcontinental unity'. When African countries gained independence they soon estab-lished the Organisation of African Unity, which, for better or worse, has workedtowards continental integration and a shared response to Africa's marginalisation(Ackah, 1999).

While the formal support for Pan-Africanism has waned, there is still a strong, ifimplicit, belief among many working for development in Africa that certain responsesto underdevelopment must be dealt with on a continental, or at least regional, basis.Some of these remain true to the spirit of radical Pan-Africanism such as thenumerous campaigns for reparations aimed at compensating Africa for the damagecaused primarily by the slave trade, but more generally due to exploitation by thewest. Other efforts are less confrontational and work through existing organisationalstructures. For example, the African Commission on Human Rights argues for therecognition of Africa's unique history in any formulation of rights legislation. Thisinvolves acknowledgement of the damaging effects of colonialism and the ways inwhich African societies are divided along multiple ethnic lines. A final example is aninitiative called the National Summit on Africa which is a US-based organisationwhich aims to educate Americans about Africa and to 'further strengthen, energizeand mobilize a broad and diverse support for Africa in the United States' (one keypart of this involves lobbying the US government for an enhanced aid budget, but thelist of corporate sponsors and high profile supporters, such as Oprah Winfrey, pointsto an agenda of investment-led development and the privatisation of aid (Martin,1998).

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ConclusionIn this article we have seen that the activities of the African Diaspora contributes todevelopment in both formal and informal ways. A diasporic analysis brings newactors to the fore and challenges our accepted notions about political territory andcultural belonging. As such, diasporas represent a form of 'globalisation from below' -in which 'small' players, as opposed to mega-corporations, make use of theopportunities offered by globalisation. In many senses this is a form of resistance inthat the subaltern groups creatively explore and exploit the interstices of a globaleconomy. However, we should avoid over-celebrating and romanticising thiscondition as Johnson-Odim (2000:51) warns us:

People become a part of a diaspora either because they voluntarily migrate or because theyare forcibly relocated. Voluntary migration, however, is not as 'clean' as it may first appear- that is, people may often leave 'voluntarily' because of 'violent forces.

Some, mainly those privileged by gender and class, can flourish in the diaspora andmake use of the multiple connections in place and around the globe. However, not allmigrants are so fortunate and not everybody, indeed only a small minority, have beenable to leave Africa to secure a better standard of living. For the vast majority themigration of others is their best chance of securing a precarious livelihood.

All the signs are there that such a diffuse form of political economy will becomeincreasingly important as neo-liberalism, with or without a human face, generatesgreater exclusion and higher barriers to entry. It is highly likely that with deepeningglobalisation there will be a series of contradictory forces at work. On one hand, themobility of people and their ability to communicate and transact has increased so thatthe developmental potential of diaspora is likely to expand. On the other hand, socialpolarisation and economic and political exclusion means that there will be increasedpressure on the third world's poor to seek their well-being elsewhere. However, themovement of 'illegitimate' people is likely to be curtailed through restrictiveimmigration and citizenship procedures. Hence, the activities and lifestyles ofdiasporic communities may become an ever more important role model for the future.

Giles Mohan is in the Development Policy & Practice Discipline, Open University,Milton Keynes, UK; e-mail: [email protected]. Tunde Zack-Williams is Professorin the Department of Education and Social Studies, University of Central Lancashire,Preston, UK; e-mail: [email protected]

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